Friday, 1 October 2010

The Calm before the Strictly Storm

It is Friday morning as I write this. I have an enforced quiet time because Debbie has gone off to pick some crates of champagne and I was going to prepare myself for the day. Doorbells rang and there was the first of the trucks with generators and heaters. I know nothing about this party on Sunday evening other than the garden is covered in marquees and quite a lot of friends who were at our wedding are coming over for fun and chatty catch ups.

It's no use me going back to my ablutions as another truck has just brought the table settings. The organiser of all this, Debbie, is missing and I think she has done this deliberately to get me more involved. The trouble is that tonight will be the first live broadcast of Strictly Come Dancing and my head is full of dance steps and angles!

Once I get tonight over with I can think about the Sunday Event on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily Debbie is a brilliant organiser and I can trust her to get on with it. Whatever happens we will have a great evening with all our friends.

So many people have asked about Strictly and I am afraid that I can't tell you about what has happened to the other 'contestants', only what has been happening to me. It wasn't until yesterday that I got to see some of the others dancing and I think they are all brilliant. What you have to remember is this is not the Comfort Zone for any of us and for most of us a completely new adventure. The way the professional dancers have brought them all out of their shells and into this new world is astonishing.

Me? Well, I am the result of repetition, repetition, repetition on the part of Ola Jordan who is still trying to get me to understand rhythm and memorise where my feet should be going. Add that to where your head has to be, and your arms, and your hips, and it's no wonder I am confused. Give me card tricks every time!

To all those who wrote about why the BBC didn't follow up the Launch Show with the Shows themselves, I don't know. It seemed to be a natural progression but they must have thought differently. It's the same thing tonight: they are putting out a 'split show' with the first part on at 9pm and tomorrow night it will be on at 6pm.

One thing I did learn over the TV years I did the job is that audiences are creatures of habit. A regular time and a regular day builds an audience up. I even disagree with breaking up regular programs for some boring sports event.

Hey ho... did you see that the Germans will finally pay off the 6.6billion debt on Sunday? That's for the FIRST World War. Now how much did that last Government leave us in debt for? Do the sums!!!